


Welcome Wagon

by Goldmonger



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Canon-Typical Violence, Enemies to Still Enemies, Epic Friendship, Force-Sensitive Finn (Star Wars), Gen, M/M, Multi, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Finn (Star Wars), Protective Poe Dameron, SIKE, Sharing a Bed, in this house we are finn AND john boyega stans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:42:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22094284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goldmonger/pseuds/Goldmonger
Summary: Kylo Ren doesn’t die on Exegol, and Rey brings him back to the Resistance Base for reparations. Everyone’s scared, right up until Poe slaps him across the face.ORKylo Ren dying is much, much too easy. Redemption is a long haul.
Relationships: Poe Dameron & Finn & Rey, Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 14
Kudos: 262





	Welcome Wagon

**Author's Note:**

> JJ real quick I’m gonna tweak it juuuuuuuuuuust a lil’ bit

They stole a ship from the hangars of Palpatine’s temple, a spiky skeleton of black durasteel that keened when Rey shifted to light speed. It was small, but not cramped, and there was ample space for Ben to avoid her by fiddling with the coolant levels while she flew. She listened to the clicking of switches and his muttering as he prodded the datascreen, and wondered if she should find it endearing.

Mostly, she felt tired. An exhaustion that had seeped through to her very bones.

At some point, she suggested he sleep, and the look he shot her was dark with suspicion. “Why don’t _you_ sleep?”

“I’m flying us to Ajan Kloss, which was chosen as our base because of its frequent lightning storms,” she said tightly. “It makes it difficult for the enemy to detect radio transmissions. You can probably vector us in, but the stratosphere makes descent extremely bumpy and since I’ve done it before -,”

“All right, all right,” he muttered, retreating to the rear of the ship. He climbed into one of the hard bunks that folded down from the bulkhead, curling away into the foetal position with his back to her.

She waited until his breathing slowed, faint snores echoing around the cabin, then radioed Finn.

She felt almost sick with nerves contacting him, fear melding with hurt and enveloped in a hearty dose of shame. She wanted to see him with an ache that caused her shoulders to shudder silently, her sobs swallowed with the vicious resolve that Ben of all people would not wake to find her crying. The line crackled blankly and she imagined him in a ship blown up by TIES, at the base tracked by a vengeful Destroyer, even tossing his terminal away in disgust. She shook herself, inhaling deeply. This was Finn, the former Stormtrooper. If anyone could understand her internalised horror with herself it was him.

And Poe, she thought with a watery smile. He’d seen enough of war to lighten the mood with some terrible joke, maybe hip-check her into a bush for stressing herself nearly to tears.

She studied the flight plan again, intermittently scanning for tails. It was probably stupid, she thought, but then so was the emperor returning without warning. Anything could happen. She checked their ETA – just over six hours – and flicked on autopilot, leaning back in the pilot’s seat. Somewhere behind her, Ben was dead to the world, the force healing having wiped him out. When they got back to base he’d require bacta, even if he tried to muscle through, or claim the injuries were superficial. Their stores were low, but… but…

Their stores were low, and the First Order was the reason. Rey dragged a hand over her face, flakes of dried blood floating to the dashboard. This was going to be rough.

*

There was a great deal of merriment, the typical survivors’ euphoria turning hugs into full-body tackles and pecks into passionate kisses. Poe wound his way between his fellow rebels, the brightly-garbed pilots and control operators in grimy military fatigues blending into one massive tide of life. There were fewer of them, but they were there, throwing themselves at each other, grasping at his flight suit to thank him, even bless him as he passed. He nodded amiably to Zorii, winking with their old code – _next drink’s on me, I’ll hype you up to the Twi’lek girl, I’ve always got your back_. It covered everything. She shook her head in her typical response.

_You still owe me, flyboy._

He was then pressing through the crowds with a little more urgency, because there was one face he needed to see, a need that was morphing into desperation. Surely he would know, he saw Lando dive with that rustbucket, he’d picked them both up. He would know if something had happened, so why wasn’t he –

There. Sandwiched between Rose and the girl that commanded the surprisingly useful herd of orbaks was Finn, and he was casting around with the same panicked aspect. They caught each other’s eyes, the jungle moon fading away, the brimming lives dulling to noise as Finn came hurtling towards him. The entire universe became one person, Poe’s grief and latent fear reduced from a cascade to a trickle as his arms were suddenly, blissfully, full of Finn. It was absurd, he thought, how everything just then was okay. How the puzzle pieces became a whole picture, the air breathable, the ground steady. He gripped the back of his neck, burying his face in Finn’s shoulder. When they drew back, he was dazzlingly close, and beaming.

Their lips met instinctively, joyously, without waiting one more second. It had taken long enough. Electricity coursed through his veins as they kissed, not caring that it was messy or that they kept ruining it by laughing. Finn was here, they had won, the future was bright instead of steeped in shadow. Nothing could change how he felt in that moment, the relief potent as a drug.

“Rey?”

“It’s Rey!”

“It’s -,”

“Oh merciful Balam, is that -,”

“ _No!_ ”

Poe and Finn pulled apart reluctantly, the shouts beginning to pierce the dreamlike state they had woven about themselves, almost unconsciously.

“What did they say?” Finn was panting, and Poe tried very hard not to get distracted.

“I’m not sure.”

His hand slipped down to Finn’s as they turned to investigate, confusion mounting as they saw the masses part with startling alacrity.

Rey, bedraggled and bloody, stepped into view. Finn gasped, and they made as though to run for her, mindless of her tearstained face or evident anguish. It was something they could drink over later, weep about in each other’s rooms while they did their reminiscing of the dead. Poe had even opened his mouth to call out a goofy greeting when Kylo Ren slunk behind her, wide-eyed Resistance members pointing and clutching each other. Many had their blasters out already.

“Rey -,” Finn’s voice was strained. He kept one hand hovering by his hip as she yanked him into an embrace, crushing them together in a way that appeared almost painful. They seemed oblivious to the way it had gone, rapidly, deathly quiet in the clearing. Men and women and others were congregated around the scene like it was an execution. Weapons clicked and buzzed all around them, and every single body was angled towards the hulking figure in black.

“He’s with me,” she said, though she didn’t sound sure. The ostensible leader of the First Order wore only a dark shirt and trousers, his belt empty of his signature lightsaber. His face was pale and bruised, blood caked into his skin just like Rey. He seemed drawn to her – if she moved, he reacted accordingly. Like polarised magnets, Poe thought, stupidly. He’d played with them as a child.

“He defected,” she said, raising her volume for the benefit of the gathering, though it looked as like it was a struggle to do so. People bristled, mutters breaking out like the rustling of wind through trees.

“He saved my life,” – more mutters – “and he has decided to help rebuild the New Republic. As the Jedi his mother and uncle trained him to be.”

Poe was staring as everyone else erupted in chatter, Leia’s name invoked more than once. Someone bleated a feeble attempt at an insult, but Kylo seemed impervious, watching Rey the entire time. When she hugged Rose and Kaydel, or brought Finn’s forehead against her own, he suddenly seemed overtly fascinated by the ground. Poe could feel a strange sense of calm settle over him, like his adrenaline had been burned away by the delight at getting Finn back. He saw Kylo Ren and felt nothing more than a vague pressure in his chest, a singular anomaly. Ren was just a man in the end, it was true, but he was a man and at the same time not just a man; he was death, and dying, and pain. He was an old woman with a murdered husband. He was Jess Pava, scattered across the sky. Paige Tico, vaporised. Snap Wexley in an inferno. He was something that had pushed its way into Poe’s mind, excavating memories of every flavour just to watch him squirm. Poe had seen his mind too, the briefest snapshot before the cage of agony clanged around him, and he knew this pallid, lone man had done these things and revelled in them. Conquering the Resistance may have been about rejecting his parents, his uncle, but Poe remembered that hideous satisfaction that poured out with the rush of power. It had sickened him then and it sickened him now. 

Rey was there, tugging at his lapels. He met her gaze from a thousand parsecs away.

“Poe?”

“Rey. I’m so – I’m so glad that you’re okay.” He hugged her, mostly to stave off the impending break in his voice, but couldn’t keep his eyes from Ren. He was like a black hole. The most dangerous thing on his radar, sucking everything in.

“Ben helped me kill Palpatine. There’s more to the story, but – Poe?”

He could feel Finn’s grip on his elbow as he strode past them all, Ren’s awareness piqued. He was being held in place, a familiar warmth blocking his path.

“Let me go.”

“Poe, not now. Rey has to explain -,”

“She can, of course she can,” said Poe, flat, the timbre alien to him. He was removed from his own body. Again. “I just want to ask him. That’s all.”

“We don’t know what he’s capable of -,”

“If he hurts me he’ll disappoint Rey,” said Poe, loudly enough that those nearest would hear every word. The crowd quietened down again, and Rey was rigid, still as stone. Rose, Kaydel and Jannah were wide-eyed, flanking her, and all were focused on Ren and the pair entwined opposite him. It wasn’t the way Poe had envisioned any of this happening. At all.

“Poe, please -,”

“I can still feel him,” Poe shot back, pleading with Finn to understand, to give him this. “In nightmares, flying my X-Wing, fixing BB-8. I’ll remember the pain of it, at any time, and I just want to ask him why, why he did it. I just want to ask.”

Finn released him, eyes sorrowful when they looked away, and Poe instantly missed the heat of him. He returned his attention to Ren, the unnerving calm now a roiling sea. He approached him slowly, keeping several yards between them. Ren had lifted his chin, his hair sticking to his temples and curving away from his skull in cowlicks. He somehow still resembled the boy Poe remembered seeing from afar, the generals fussing over him as he sulked. He wondered if the grim set to his mouth changed when he killed.

“You know who I am?” he asked, enunciating the words as though speaking to someone unfamiliar with the language. Ren’s expression turned sullen. He’d been expecting this sooner or later, Poe realised.

“The pilot.”

“That’s right.” Poe nodded to Finn, Rose, Jannah. Lando, oddly, had vanished. “You know them?”

“Resistance fighters,” said Ren. He narrowed his eyes somewhere over Poe’s shoulder, seemed to forget whose company he was keeping. “And the traitor, FN-2187.”

“Watch your mouth,” Poe said coolly, to a few appreciative titters either side of them. Blasters were up again, pointed at Ren with extreme prejudice. It felt good, he thought, to be the other side of the interrogation. To have that power redirected back at the offender like a glaring beam of light.

“Why’d you join the First Order, _Kylo_?” Poe said, Leia’s lined, grieving face swimming in front of him. “Why’d you kill for them, torture, maul, annihilate whole families, rip parents from their children, split siblings and lovers and friends? Why did you massacre a solar system? Why did you hurt every single person here?”

“I -,”

The slap was like a snapping bone, echoing off the surrounding trees and jarringly loud in the silence that had descended over the congregated rebels. Ren staggered back, spluttering, his cheek already scarlet.

“I don’t actually give a shit about your answer,” said Poe, flexing his hand. “And I learned _that_ skill from the best.”

He turned away, stalking towards the base quarters with numbness spreading from where his palm had connected with the side of Ren’s face. He heard Finn come up on his left, threading their fingers together without a sound from either of them, and Poe felt a pang for the person that had suffered the most from Ren yet kept his head. Poe wanted romance, wanted to laugh with the friends he had left and drink himself into oblivion, but the need to see Ren in a prison cell or in the vacuum of space overrode all of that now.

A shit end to a predominantly shit day, he wanted to joke aloud, but even that felt wrong.

*

Poe was asleep in his – or their – quarters, and Finn was feeling every emotion at once.

“It’s not for forever,” Rey was saying, his hands in hers, the smell of her no longer coppery or sour from seawater. It was Rey, and she was safe, and so was the galaxy, and Kylo Ren was somehow still kicking in the midst of all of this.

“It’s for right now, though,” said Finn, keeping his voice low even though there was a durasteel door between them and Poe. It wasn’t fair, Finn thought bitterly. His favourite people were unharmed and returned to him, they had survived the worst the First Order and a resurrected Emperor Palpatine had to throw at them, and it all still revolved around Kylo Ren. He was like a vortex that absorbed whatever goodness veered into his orbit. What should have been a glorious reunion - a follow up to the kiss that Finn had been waiting for since he first met the man behind it - was instead reduced to the pair of them clinging to each other, hidden away while they waited for Rose’s solemn message that Ren had been put in one of the few holding cells they had. They were basically drunk tanks, pale imitations of the solitary confinement blocks hosted by Ren’s former institution, but Finn was nevertheless glad they’d made the communal decision to put him under armed guard. Nobody had any illusions that he could escape if he wanted to, but one word from Rey and he was mute, immobile, slumped in the cell and refusing to so much as speak. Another complication, Finn thought, as Rey rubbed her temples.

“Finn, it’s all a mess. He has to atone for what he’s done, but he did help save the galaxy from Palpatine.”

It was pitch black outside, the rest of the camp still celebrating or having serious discussions over drinks in the mess hall. The hallway was silent, and Finn forced himself not to raise his voice.

“Which you refuse to tell us about, by the way, just that he ‘helped’.” He did the air quotes, almost pettily. “And even if he did save the galaxy, he was the one who put it in that state in the first place. Why did he even come back here? He could have scuttled into obscurity, run away from the one group of people who not only knows his identity but also the very worst things he’s done.”

Rey looked uncomfortable for the umpteenth time that day, but now there was a self-conscious tinge to her downcast eyes. “Rey?”

“Palpatine isn’t just some monster,” she said miserably. “And Ben – he’s calling himself that now -,”

“I know _he_ is,” grumbled Finn.

“Well, he’s not the only one with a screwed bloodline.”

Finn just blinked at her, uncomprehending. Rey sighed, letting go of him, and took a step back, like she was afraid her next sentence would physically hurt him. “It’s the emperor, Finn. He’s – well, he’s my father’s father.”

Finn blinked again. The past few days were about to catch up to him in a violent way, he was sure of it, but now he felt only bemusement at her radiating self-loathing.

“So some dead guy was your grandfather? Same. Probably.”

Rey laughed softly, shuffling forwards and laying her forehead against his chest. He placed his hand over the back of her neck, listening to the gentle sobs that wracked her thin frame. He would take all of their pain, if he could, Poe’s and Rey’s and even Jannah’s and Rose’s. Seeing the ones he loved suffer from something that he could never touch was like a fire engulfing his heart.

At some stage, Rey pulled herself back, slightly puffy around the eyes.

“You’re my best friend, Finn. I’m sorry I couldn’t include you in all of this, but – also not really, because you were spared it. You’re okay.”

“As okay as can be.” Finn bit his lip. “So… Palpatine banged someone -,”

“Finn, _gross._ ”

“Tell me about it – and had your dad, who wasn’t cannibalised at birth, somehow, and he grew up and met your mom and had you, and they left you on Jakku?”

“Apparently.” Rey was glum again, toeing at some loose leaves that had been swept in from outside. “They were heroes, tried to protect me, or something. They seem dumb and thoughtless to me.”

“I mean, they stopped Palpatine from finding you.”

“Yeah, and they sold me like scrap to do it,” said Rey irritably, pacing now. “I don’t know what they went through hiding from him, and now I never will, but there had to be another option than that.” She stilled, pausing in the middle of the dimly lit corridor. The sconces turned their shadows shapeless and silver in the pale glow.

“General Organa was given to a queen,” she said, and sat down, cross-legged. Finn copied her, too sorry for his friend to smile, even in sympathy. The grief weighed on them, and would for a long time.

“And you were raised alone in a desert, fighting for every meal, and you still helped me,” said Finn. “Your first impulse, after beating me senseless -,” she grinned – “was to help me and to save Luke Skywalker. Kylo Ren was raised like a prince by heroes who adored him. He still decided to turn to death and destruction.”

Rey wasn’t amused anymore, fidgeting with the hem of her trousers.

“Rey. I’m glad he saved you. I’m ecstatic that you’re home. But he killed billions. He tortured Poe, and you. And he was one of the people who took my life away from me, until I took it right back.”

Tears glistened where they slid down her face, despondent. They were for him, he hoped, but he couldn’t be sure. “When they put him on trial, they will find him guilty, and there is no prison that can hold him. The people out there with torn up families are going to want his head.”

“You want his head,” she said, and he didn’t even have to consider it.

“Yes.”

There wasn’t disappointment in her sharp inhale, her folded arms across her stomach like they were holding her together. But there was something. The merest hint of offence.

“Palpatine called us a – a Force Dyad. Like – we’re connected. I can feel how much he’s hurting and -,” she breathed out, stilted, like it took most of her strength to do so. “I’m not sure what’s me and what’s him. If I’m scared for him, or if he is.”

“Then think logically. Like a Jedi.”

Rey rolled her eyes, but accepted the weak smile Finn sent her way. “Logically, I want to be with you. I want to kick Poe’s ass in a flight race, catch up with Rose, tell Chewie I’m – I’m sorry. I know Ben, the way I don’t know you guys, but it doesn’t make me love him.” She held herself tighter. “It’s like the difference between a liver and a dog. I technically need one to live, yes, but if anything harmed my hypothetical dog I’d go fucking insane.”

Finn pondered this. “Am I the dog? Or is Poe the dog?”

She smacked him half-heartedly. “Neither. You’re both morons.”

“Harsh, Poe’s not even here to defend himself. I thought you preferred droids to dogs anyway?”

“Finn.”

“Right.”

They sat in a not uncompanionable silence for a while, Finn throwing bits of leaf at Rey every time her attention seemed to wander into an arena that furrowed her brow.

“He could help rebuild,” she said abruptly. “Like I said earlier.”

“Unless he gets bored and explodes a ship for the sake of it.”

“I would keep him in line. He needs to earn everyone’s trust back. His punishment should be a long road, not an easy one.”

Finn could only shrug. Kylo Ren, Kylo Ren, Kylo Ren. He missed Poe, the softness of his hair and the smell of engine grease that stuck to him like a cologne. He missed Rey, too, but she had to come back to them herself. She was still that desert orphan, he thought, intent on saving anyone who fell into her lap. He loved her for it. He hated that Ren hadn’t done the right thing and died for her, far away on some Dark Side planet in a way he would never have to know about.

“What did you want to tell, me, by the way?”

“Hm?”

“On Pasaana, in the pit, you said you wanted to tell me -,”

“Oh!” Finn straightened up. “It seemed dumb at the time, but – I felt it when Jannah and I were attacking the Destroyers. Same way I could touch you and know you had a secret, before really _knowing_ the information about Palpatine.”

“Finn.” Rey’s expression had gone very serious. “Tell me right now.”

“Look.”

He stretched out a hand, fingers splayed the way he’d seen Rey do it, the way he’d practised a hundred times in his bunk on the _Falcon_. He concentrated, fervently, and a pebble no bigger than a button soared into the air, arcing right into Rey’s waiting hands.

“FINN!”

She leapt on him, giggling madly, the nearness of her like taking hold of a world. He saw her fear, her anger, her weariness of everything telling her who and what to be. Rey was Rey, and she loved being, and she really, really loved being with Finn.

He just cuddled her, happy and sad and relieved, and so enmeshed in all of it that he didn’t notice the door sweep open. He fell right through it, Rey falling on top of him. They both looked up to see Poe in shorts and an undershirt, bewildered, his curls sticking out in every direction. BB-8 beeped from his charger mat, and Finn knew enough binary to translate it to something foul.

“What in the -,”

“Get down here, Mr Dameron,” said Finn, grabbing his wrist and tugging him into the pile. It was a mark of how overwhelming the day had been that Poe didn’t question it, just joined them on the cold floor, limbs entangled and resting.

“We decide what to do about -,”

“Shush,” proclaimed Finn, pressing a finger to Poe’s lips. “This is our time. For us. As in, we’re a little cuckoo from lack of sleep so please don’t make us cry again.”

Poe smirked. “I was sleeping. Master Jedi, you can take my side of the bed if you’re wiped.”

Finn and Rey exchanged glances, momentarily stunned before remembering that Poe had been absent for most of the revelations, and he was inviting Rey. He perked up at their cackling. “What?”

“Let’s all get into the bed,” said Finn, firmly refusing to acknowledge the butterflies swirling below decks. “If that’s – I mean if you’re -,”

“Oh boy. Just – come on,” Poe said, helping up Rey, then Finn, their hands remaining linked. It was the easiest thing in the world, holding Poe, and Finn wanted to do it for as long as possible. He flushed as Rey elbowed him pointedly, jumping into the relatively small bed and scrunching into a ball. They slipped in beside her, reforming the warmth and smell and solidity of home. BB-8’s trills petered out as he returned to standby mode.

“It’s good to be back,” Rey slurred, and was asleep in seconds. Finn turned on his side, to see Poe’s profile limned sparsely, by starlight pouring in from the windows. If they strained to listen, they could hear the whooping and music of the still living Resistance.

“Don’t worry,” Finn whispered. “I won’t let him hurt you ever again.” He was feeling bold, so he laid his fist loosely on Poe’s stomach, a frisson of joy running through him when he felt Poe’s hand cover it.

“He won’t hurt anyone.” Poe’s eyes were chips of obsidian in the near darkness, and his grip was firm. “We’ll protect our whole family, Finn. I swear it.”

It was the easiest thing in the world, to hold him. The Force was a kaleidoscope of possibility when he closed his eyes, and it was the colour of Poe, of Rey, of light.

**Author's Note:**

> *Poe and Zorii being wlw/mlm allies is stolen from Twitter or Tumblr, I loved that idea so much. They like, would
> 
> *Balam is a gungan deity. I know this, and now you do too


End file.
